BVN Registration Continues, As CBN Warns Against Fraudsters

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Nigerian Inter-bank Settlement System (NIBSS), on Sunday, announced the continuation of the Bank Verification Number (BVN) registration exercise, despite the expiration of the deadline on Saturday.

This was revealed by the spokesman of the CBN, Ibrahim Muazu, while speaking with newsmen in Abuja.

Muazu who said that the exercise will still go-on, as the deadline means that any customer that fails to do the registration will have some restriction to operate his/her accounts, added that except for those customers that choose not to participate in the process, majority of the banks have captured the BVN of their active accounts.

He said: “Deadline was successful because the awareness has been created to millions of customers and the banking hall were empty unlike the June deadline where there were chaos everywhere in the banking halls.”

Also, the Managing Director, NIBSS, Mr Ade Shonubi said the BVN is a minimum requirement for Know Your Customer (KYC) as provided by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and Bankers’ Committee.

On the deadline, he said: “What the deadline implies is that a customer who has not complied would not have access to his account until he or she complies.”

Meanwhile, the CBN warned bank customers against some fraudsters, who have allegedly started sending unsolicited mails and text messages, alerting them of a deactivation or suspension of their bank accounts, due to uncompleted BVN registration process, as well as directing them on what next to do.

The statement, signed by Muazu read, “An example of such messages reads thus: ‘Dear customer, due to the new BVN policy by the CBN, your account has been deactivated and to reactivate, call……”

Muazu explained that the aim of the messages is to lure bank account holders to reveal their personal details with which the fraudsters could use to defraud them.

He said, “The public is therefore warned that neither the Central Bank of Nigeria and deposit money banks nor their employees or agents would ever call bank customers or send e-mail/text messages requesting for passwords, card details or personal identification number (PIN).

“Bank customers are therefore, advised to personally visit their banks for any issue requiring disclosure of personal bank details,” the statement said.